Somali Pirate Stock Market

Apparently pirates in Somalia have set up something like a stock market to fund their offshore activities. They allow people to invest in a hijacking with guns, cash or whatever else they have and to get returns on their investment if the hijacking is successful. Piracy has been turned into a community activity, according to an ex-pirate named Mohammed interviewed by Reuters. Some of the paragraphs in the article seemed too absurd to be true, almost like a Monty Python sketch. Like this one:

Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out after one of the gangs freed a Spanish tuna fishing vessel.

“I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation,” she said, adding that she got the weapon from her ex-husband in alimony.

“I am really happy and lucky. I have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined the ‘company’.”